FBI Aircraft Flying Anonymously On Surveillance Runs

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane (well, it is that)! It's... G-Man!

Or is it?

Airport officials in Bloomington (IN) said the Cessna 182 flying over the college town several times a day is involved in law enforcement surveillance. But local, state and federal law officers said it wasn't so. 

Now, the truth comes out.

Residents in this city of 69,000 have seen the white, single-engine Cessna 182 at least since Feb. 19 making passes overhead about noon, in the late evening and after midnight.

Andrew Stevens tracked the plane one night from about 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. "It kind of concerned me. After the plane flew away Friday night, I thought, 'I can take my own terror assessment back down to yellow.'" But then the plane returned last Monday.

Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration and area airports said they could not comment about the plane beyond confirming that the flights were authorized.

"This is a very sensitive situation," Monroe County Airport manager Bruce Payton said Wednesday. "I can only say that people should not be alarmed by this aircraft. This airplane is in contact with air traffic control."

Law enforcement officials denied the airplane belonged to them or that they were aware of its mission.

"I can say of a certainty it's not anybody out of our post, and I've called the (Indianapolis) hangar and they say it's not any of our planes," said state police Lt. Michael Saltsman, commander at the Bloomington post.

The Truth Is Told

But then, FBI Agent Thomas V. Fuentes said the Bureau initially issued the denial because a reporter asked if the airplane is doing electronic surveillance, which, he says it is not.

Fuentes and agent James H. Davis said the FBI is not aware of any threat to Bloomington or the state, but is watching many foreign nationals. Besides individuals, they said, the aircraft is monitoring vehicles and businesses--particularly those open late at night from which faxes or e-mails can be sent.

FBI officials in Washington said that use of aircraft is not uncommon in surveillance, particularly when agents are keeping tabs on vehicles over a wide-ranging area. Planes are also used when it is not feasible to introduce agents on the ground.

Fuentes said the aircraft is conducting surveillance flights over several communities near Indianapolis.

Bloomington, the home of Indiana University's flagship campus, is about 40 miles south of Indianapolis and has a population of 69,000.

FMI: www.fbi.gov